Midland, Texas map
32.00° N · 102.08° W · Midland County · elev. ~2,780 ft · Central Time
Midland is the office half of the Permian Basin oil industry: the geologists, landmen and company headquarters sit here, while most of the drilling rigs and service yards are 20 miles west in Odessa. The result is a cluster of downtown towers on Wall Street that is the tallest skyline on I-20 between Fort Worth and El Paso.
Downtown is north of I-20; Loop 250 wraps the north, west and east sides. Odessa is off the left edge at this zoom.
Where Midland is in Texas
Midland sits on the flat southern edge of the Llano Estacado in far West Texas, 305 miles west of Fort Worth and about the same distance east of El Paso on I-20 and I-10. The name comes from the town's position on the Texas and Pacific Railway roughly halfway between those two cities, which is also why the county, created in 1885, took the name.
The city is 20 miles east of Odessa in Ector County and 40 miles west of Big Spring. Lubbock is 120 miles north across the Caprock, San Angelo 110 miles southeast, and Abilene 155 miles east. Nothing larger than Midland or Odessa lies between them and the New Mexico line.
There is no river. Water comes from well fields to the north and from the Colorado River Municipal Water District's reservoirs to the east, and rainfall averages under 15 inches a year. The Spraberry Trend, one of the largest oil fields in the country by remaining reserves, lies directly beneath the county, which is why pumpjacks appear inside the city limits and between subdivisions.
Highways
- I-20 – across the south side; west to Odessa and El Paso, east to Big Spring, Abilene and Fort Worth.
- Loop 250 – the freeway loop around the north, west and east of the city, carrying most local traffic.
- SH-349 – north to Lamesa (and on to Lubbock via US-87), south to Rankin.
- SH-158 – northeast to Garden City and Sterling City, the direct line toward San Angelo.
- SH-191 – the divided highway west to Odessa on the north side of the airport, parallel to I-20.
- Business 20 (Front Street) – the old US-80 route through downtown beside the railroad.
The oil town and its museums
Midland's downtown is unusual for a West Texas city of this size: office towers rather than storefronts, built by oil companies during successive booms since the 1950s. Wall Street and Texas Avenue hold most of them, along with the Midland County Courthouse. Independent operators, mineral owners and law firms concentrate in the same few blocks.
The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum stands beside I-20 at SH-349, with drilling equipment outdoors and a reconstruction of the Permian reef that formed the basin's oil. The George W. Bush Childhood Home on West Ohio Avenue is a restored 1950s house museum; the family lived in Midland while the elder Bush worked in the oil business here. Midland College, a two-year public college, sits on Garfield Street on the north side, and Hogan Park on the northeast holds the city's largest set of ball fields and a municipal golf course.
Areas and districts
| Area | What's there |
|---|---|
| Downtown | Oil company offices on Wall and Texas, the county courthouse, Centennial Park |
| Old Midland / West Ohio | Pre-war houses west of downtown, the George W. Bush Childhood Home |
| I-20 at SH-349 | Petroleum Museum, hotels and truck stops on the interstate frontage |
| Northwest Midland | Newer subdivisions and retail inside and outside Loop 250 along Midland Drive |
| Midland College / Garfield | The college campus, hospital district and Hogan Park to the east |
| Airport corridor | Midland International Air & Space Port, industrial parks along SH-191 and I-20 west |
| Cotton Flat and south | Oilfield service yards, pipe storage and rail spurs south of I-20 |
| Greenwood | Rural school community southeast of the city on FM 307 |
The airport shared with Odessa
Midland International Air & Space Port lies west of the city off I-20, roughly midway to Odessa, and serves both cities plus the surrounding oil counties — the reason its airline code and signage reference Midland–Odessa together. It is one of the few commercial airports in the country also licensed as a spaceport, and traffic swings sharply with the price of crude.
Distances from Midland
| City | Road miles | Route |
|---|---|---|
| Odessa | 20 | I-20 W |
| Big Spring | 40 | I-20 E |
| San Angelo | 110 | SH-158 E / US-87 S |
| Lubbock | 120 | SH-349 N / US-87 N |
| Abilene | 155 | I-20 E |
| El Paso | 305 | I-20 W / I-10 W |
| Fort Worth | 310 | I-20 E |